Berwick Rangers rescue 'deserved' draw in league opener against Lochee United

Berwick Rangers manager Kevin Haynes has claimed that his side’s late draw against Lochee United in the opening game of their Lowland League East campaign was a “deserved” result.

The Borderers fell behind to a first-half strike from Finlay Allan, but refused to be beaten at Thomson Park, and were eventually rewarded for their endeavour when Danny Handling prodded home a Michael Mbewe knockdown in the last minute of regular time to seal a 1-1 draw and a sharing of the spoils.

And to that end, Haynes felt that his side were good value for a point in a hard-fought clash against newly promoted opposition. Speaking after the final whistle, the Rangers boss said: “In my opinion, a deserved draw. You know, I think a draw was probably fair. I've said to multiple people who were willing to listen to me over the last few weeks, we've probably come to Lochee on the hardest possible day - a historic day for Lochee. They've been promoted, they're in the Lowland League, they're going to play their first game in the Lowland League, they're going to play an ex-senior league club in the Lowland League. You know, this was treated as a cup final, and as I said, it's a historic day.”

He continued: “They were not going to give away points very easily, and they've done that. Credit to Lochee - they were resilient, they were difficult to break down, they were energetic. But I do feel we got the benefits, I felt we were fitter than them. I think the last 20 minutes kind of showed that. And it's a learning curve for Lochee as well. The quality of opposition they're going to play this year is much higher, and they can't switch off. I suspect that they will lose a lot of late goals for that reason. They put so much into the game for 60, 70 minutes and made it really difficult for us. But I just felt our quality in the second half, particularly the latter part of the second half, got us something out of the game.”